U.S. needs damage control with irate allies

In 2009, even President Barack Obama was surprised when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, granted in the apparent presumption that his administration would end the unpopular, go-it-alone policies of his predecessor. But four years later, the United States is under sharp fire from more traditional allies than it ever was in the George W. Bush years.

The main cause is revelations about mass spying by the United States on the leaders and governments of friendly nations. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took the extraordinary step of canceling a White House state dinner in her honor. In France, there’s national outrage over recent revelations that U.S. spying targeted businesses and individual citizens, not just government officials. In Mexico, astonishment and anger greeted reports that the U.S. wiretapped our southern neighbor’s last two presidents.

There is no small amount of hypocrisy at play here. Our allies spy on us, too. But the staggering breadth of U.S. spying has spurred nationalistic fury in many countries. This reaction is real and organic, and it will require lots of fence-mending by the president, Secretary of State John Kerry and legions of diplomats.

Without such efforts, the blowback could be more than rhetorical. U.S. high-tech firms that cooperated with the National Security Agency are now in the cross hairs of politicians around the world. Here’s hoping the White House understands that without a U.S. charm offensive, this geopolitical strife could inflict sharp collateral damage on companies that are pillars of our economy.